Nore Lights. Steel engraving. Drawing by Tomblesons and engraved by W. Taylor[?]. From
Eighty Picturesque Views of the Thames and Medway.
Fearnside explains, “Some distance
below this town [Southend] the beacon, called the "Nore-Light," is placed, being an immense lamp, fixed in the hulk of a Dutch-built vessel, moored nearly in the centre of the Nore, between what is termed Shoebury Ness and the Isle of Sheppey, in order that vessels should know the bearing of the different shoals, which render the navigation dangerous at the entrance of the Thames. The breadth between the western extremity of the Isle of Grain and Shoebury Ness may be denominated the mouth of the river, and is six miles in extent. At this point the majestic Thames, having preserved that air of placid dignity and imposing grandeur which distinguish so eminently this monarch of British rivers, blends its immense volume of waters with those of the Medway, losing designation and destination, is engulphed in the mighty depths of the ocean, having flowed in an easterly course for a space of two hundred and thirty miles, of which one hundred and eighty-eight are navigable, and having expended the ebb and flood of a tide for seventy miles” (77-78).

Text and formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California Library and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]

Other images of this Lightship

References

Fearnside, W. G. Eighty Picturesque Views of the Thames and Medway, Engraved on Steel by the First Artists. London: Black and Armstrong, [n.d. after 1837]. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Berkley Library. Web. 30 March 2012.